Animals have an acute sense of smell and are capable of recognizing a human scent or any other scent that is not advantageous in that environment at long distances. To avoid such recognition a hunter will attempt to stay down wind of the animal being hunted. The more common method used by hunters to trick the animals is to mask the human odor utilizing an animal scent. Unfortunately the animal scents which are utilized, are obnoxious and linger on the clothing for long periods of time. Some of the scents utilized include animal urine. A hunter who is camping overnight does not desire the animal scents to be carried over to bedtime, home, car, etc.
There are other drawbacks in utilizing animal scents or any other scents. The scent may attract a predator of the game which the hunter is not hunting for which the hunter may not be prepared to encounter. Descenting packs or containers containing food or any other substance that contains scents that may not be natural to the given environment. Also, the weapon used by the hunter has an odor recognizable by some animals which cannot be disguised with a scent.
Fishermen have the problem of fish odor on their hands and clothes which is difficult to remove. For fishermen camping overnight the fish odor is not only undesirable because of the odor but can also attract animals such as bears which the fishermen is not prepared to meet.
Hunters have prepared their clothing before hand by washing to remove prior scents and/or human odor. The washing materials may also leave an odor. However, out in the field the hunter can sweat and permeate the clothing with a human scent. It would be desirable to deodorize clothing during a hunt or while on a fishing trip.
Ozone has been used for decontaminating buildings and for decolorizing denim garment. U.S. Pat. No. 5,833,740 to Brais discloses an apparatus for sterilizing bottles utilizing ozone. The reference recognizes that ozone in large quantities can be harmful or irritating. Consequently, it was necessary to provide means for decomposing the excess ozone and/or to cause its escape into the atmosphere.
Ozone is a powerful oxidizing agent. Ozone has 150% of the oxidizing potential of chlorine and twice the oxidizing potential of bromine. Ozone has been shown to be much more effective than chlorine with a reaction time up to 10 times faster. Ozone also readily self-destructs into simple diatomic oxygen due to its inherent instability. Ozone oxidizes biological products and kills bacteria.
Catalytic ionization using ultraviolet light is known to produce a mixture of hydroxyl and hydroperoxide ions. Ionization devices which are used in automobiles to eliminate smoke and odors are known in the art to produce hydroxyl and hydroperoxide ions.